Hong Kong's food safety department has banned the import of poultry and poultry products, including eggs, from Stanislaus County in California, it said in Hong Kong on Thursday.

The ban was imposed after the department was notified by the World Organization for Animal Health about an outbreak of low- pathogenic H5 avian influenza on a quail farm in the county.

The department has contacted American authorities and will monitor the situation, it said.

About 150,000 tones of frozen poultry meat, 8 tones of chilled poultry meat and 600 million poultry eggs were imported to Hong Kong from the United States last year.